Issue of hunting over top-sown wheat is resolved

One of the thorniest hunting issues over the past decade appears to be resolved as hunters statewide will be allowed to dove hunt over top-sown wheat throughout the dove season.

By Robert DeWittOutdoors Writer

TUSCALOOSA | One of the thorniest hunting issues over the past decade appears to be resolved as hunters statewide will be allowed to dove hunt over top-sown wheat throughout the dove season.The Alabama Cooperative Extension System changed its planting dates for wheat. The agency now recommends that wheat can be planted from Aug. 1-Nov. 30 statewide, said Paul Mask, assistant director of agriculture, forestry and natural resources for the Extension System and a professor of agronomy and soils at Auburn University.“What we did is look at the data we had,” Mask said. “Wheat is planted for a number of different reasons. If it’s planted for a cover crop, you might plant in early August. If you plant it for forage, you probably wouldn’t plant it in early August but you might want to plant it in late August to take advantage of moisture.”The change makes regulations consistent statewide and that makes Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries enforcement officers happy.“It makes it a whole lot easier on us,” said Assistant Chief of Enforcement Mark Rouleau. “It did away with the planting zones. It simplifies it. The planting date for wheat is the same across the state.”Federal officials from Washington, Atlanta and Mississippi met with Commissioner of Conservation Gunter Guy, Director of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Charles Sykes and Chief of Enforcement Kevin Dodd. They agreed on how hunting over top-sown wheat should be enforced.“Everybody should be on the same page,” Rouleau said.The extension system doesn’t regulate hunting or hunting seasons. But with dwindling grain crop production in Alabama, most dove shoots are held over top-sown wheat fields. Federal regulations say that hunting doves over top-sown wheat is legal only if it’s an accepted agricultural practice.For a top-sown wheat field to meet that criterion, the wheat had to be planted according to the recommendations established by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. The system had established optimum dates for planting wheat in three different zones.The date for the northern third of the state was Aug. 15, while it was Sept. 1 in the central planting zone and Sept. 15 in the southern planting zones. Fields planted before those dates weren’t legal to hunt over.Alabama is divided into two hunting season zones but the hunting season zones didn’t come close to matching up with the wheat planting zones. The northern hunting season zone covered most of the state.Counties from all three of the wheat planting zones were in the northern hunting season zone. So hunters in the Tennessee Valley could be hunting legally over wheat on Labor Day weekend (in years when the season came in that early) while Marengo County hunters couldn’t even plant wheat until Sept. 15.Mask said the Extension System’s recommendations weren’t intended as a guide to regulate hunting.“Our recommendations essentially become law,” Mask said. “Our planting recommendations weren’t intended for that. Our recommendations weren’t designed for doing that. They’re designed to tell farmers when to plant wheat.”When a farmer should plant wheat varies with why a farmer is planting wheat. A farmer that wants to use it as a cover crop might plant it early while a farmer who wants to harvest it as a grain crop would plant it later, Mask said.Mask said he didn’t get political pressure to change the planting recommendations.“I don’t doubt that the state game wardens were getting pressure,” Mask said. “We’re somewhat isolated from that. We’re just giving recommendations to farmers.”Rouleau noted that some things haven’t changed. Wheat must still be distributed evenly over a well-prepared seed bed at a rate of no more than 200 pounds per acre. The wheat must be seed wheat, not feed wheat.Doves can be hunted over top-sown wheat when planted for wildlife food plots, cover crops, agricultural crops and supplemental livestock grazing.

Reach Robert DeWitt at robert.dewitt@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0203.

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